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Diary of an Active Kid…

Posted on Thursday, October 28th, 2010 |

Here's a diary, my diary, not one of a wimpy kid, but rather the diary of an active kid. This is how I remember my life when I was youngster attending Lakeside Elementary. It's not really a diary, just a chance for me to retell, to best of my knowledge, a day or a combination of days in the life of me, an active kid, like it or not.

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP (That's my alarm)

“BOYYYSSS WAKE UP AND GET DRESSED.” Yells papa Snyder.

Getting up has never been an easy thing for the Snyder boys, so naturally he came back five minutes later to tell, well, yell for us to get our rear ends out of bed and get ready for school. We knew he meant business that time, and so began the competition between brothers that will most likely never end, and I'm ok with that. (I'm convinced that the competition between my brothers is what made me into an active kid, I never liked losing to them or anyone else really) Anyways I made it to the kitchen first, running through the halls and down the stairs obviously, there's no way I would risk the chance of Steve or Alan finishing the box of honey comb, and then all I get would be cheerios, not honey nut cheerios, plain cheerios, gross right.

After our quick breakfast we put on our backpacks and walked out the front door. More times than not we rode our bikes to school, only rain and snow stopped us, well that didn't really stop us, we would ride them all year long if it were up to us but it was a Mom decision, so lets pretend it was a nice day. With our helmets strapped on we hop on the schwinns and we speed off to pick up the rest of the Beechwood gang. Our gang was about six or seven strong when we began the race to Lakeside. The best part was speeding off and onto the curbs, it made us feel like some extreme sport star pulling killer tricks off thirty foot ramps, and yes it really did feel like that. The ride wasn't long, but it was fun, almost too much fun, knowing where we were going to end up. Arriving at school was such a bummer to me, we were forced to walk our bikes across the street, and of course you couldn't ride your bike on school property, because it is WAY too dangerous.

The next part of my day really impeded on my desire to play outside and compete in some type of sport or playground game. I did however get three chances a day to fulfill my active child addiction syndrome, yep I made that up but I'm convinced it's real. We had two fifteen-minute recesses and one that was a half hour. At recess the two main games were football and soccer, football being more popular on many occasions, but every once in while we toyed around with other games to, kickball, dodge ball, red rover (which became too dangerous for us to play according to the teaching staff), and good old tag or some version of it. After school we had to walk to our bikes and again walk them off school property before we could saddle up and hit the thirty footers again on our way home.

Typically we rode straight home, had to get a quick snack before the after school adventures unfolded. The snack was always something healthy, Mom usually had it prepared by the time we got home, celery and peanut butter was her favorite, I preferred chocolate milk and chocolate chip granola bars, both are still some of my favorite munchies.

Snacks are finished and out we go. First choice was the trampoline, we loved that thing, taught ourselves to front flip and back flip, we were even smart enough to pull the trampoline to near by trees, scale the tree, jump off the tree and land on the trampoline, wicked fun as you can imagine. More times than not our neighborhood had some type of sport or game being played, some of the same games from recess but also included street hockey, basketball, hide and seek, baseball, etc. So we either were playing some type of game or…we would wham bam turn into super explorers or GI Joes, both are pretty sweet. Running up and down the street, climbing up and down trees, trudging through the swamp down the street, going where no know child had gone before, getting our nice clean clothes dirtier than ever. Climbing fences and crossing into forbidden territories disturbing the old humbug neighbors, making our escape and reaching safe ground only to hear Mom shouting for us to come in for dinner. We never ever wanted to end our adventures or games, so the “dinner call” always led to whining for “just a little longer pleeeeeeeeease.” Never really worked.

Dinner is finished, what next, homework time, YES, I WAS ALWAYS SO EXCITED FOR THIS. Wait, nope just another mandatory task that inhibits me from play. With only a little time left in the day, there was only one thing left to make my day complete. Wrestle mania with Papa Georgio, even though there were three of us brothers he always had the upper hand. Now that I think about it I actually don't think we ever won a match…what a bummer. Last task on our agenda was taking a bath, brush teeth, pj's on, and get in bed for a nighttime story, which we completed quickly and with out any complaints, my parents wish that last statement were true.

Holy Toledo!! What a day, and I vaguely remember a countless number of days that were very similar. The only reason we had days like this was because of our parents, active people as well, and two kids at heart. They taught us how to play and would play with us all the time, taught us competition, gave us the freedom to play outside and all around our neighborhood, they let us be what we were, kids.

So I challenge all of you to out do me, and my family, get outside and play, explore, challenge your siblings, friends, and even those humbug neighbors with the fence, whether they like it or not.